Barack Obama urged Americans to “make sure we don’t start turning on each
other” as he launched an impassioned defence of religious freedom and Islam
on the eve of the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Mr Obama’s comments came on a day when a man was shot dead in Afghanistan over the Koran-burning controversy in Florida, while New York police prepared for duelling protests over the proposed mosque near Ground Zero.

The president said Americans should remember that Muslims were “our fellow citizens... our friends”.

“We have to make sure that we don’t start turning on each other,” he said. “We are one nation under God and we may call that God different names, but we remain one nation.”

He reaffirmed the constitutional right of American Muslims to build the controversial cultural centre and mosque on the planned site in New York.

“If you could build a church on a site, you could build a synagogue on a site, if you could build a Hindu temple on a site, then you should be able to build a mosque on a site,” he said.

Mr Obama, who pointedly referred to “my Christian faith”, also praised former President George W Bush for “being crystal clear about the fact that we are not at war with Islam” in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

The death in Afghanistan came as a crowd estimated at 10,000 poured out of mosques in Badakhshan. The man was reportedly shot by troops inside the German-run Nato base after protesters hurled stones.

Hundreds of protesters also gathered in Pakistan and Afghanistan, burning American flags and calling for the hanging of Pastor Jones. Mr Jones was called by Robert Gates, the US Secretary of Defence, who warned that burning the book would add to the danger faced by US troops overseas.

The preacher was also influenced by the promise of a meeting in New York with Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imame behind the controversial mosque in New York.

Mr Jones’s initial claim that the imam had agreed to move the centre in exchange for cancelling the Koran-burning was swiftly contradicted but the pastor said he was still “hopeful” that they would meet with the imam in New York today [sat].

Mr Rauf is likely to be preoccupied with two demonstrations outside his proposed centre, one for and one against, that could bring thousands on to the streets.